Slomovitz had an established reputation in the American Jewish community
as an activist and as a newspaper editor.

Alan Hurvitz

Special to the
Jewish News

in the Zionist movement and a crusader in the fight against
anti-Semitism. His activism and reputation allowed him to
establish relationships with any number of local and national
Jewish communal leaders and important political figures,
including a warm friendship with Michigan Sen. Arthur
Vandenberg.
Even with his reputation and communal backing,
Slomovitz found that early 1942 was a challenging time
to start a second English-Jewish newspaper in Detroit.
Hundreds of Jewish Detroiters had already departed for war
and hundreds more were getting ready to go — more than
9,000 Jewish Detroiters would eventually serve. Personal bud-
gets were tight, and many saw no need for another Jewish
weekly.

BENEFICIAL PARTNERSHIP

Slomovitz, however, had a great deal of business savvy and
entered into two business arrangements that would ensure
him an advantage over the Chronicle. First, because of his
reputation and contacts, he could secure exclusive rights
to content from most news services critical to the Jewish
press, such as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The second,
and probably most critical, was an arrangement between
the nascent Jewish News and the established Jewish Welfare
Federation of Detroit.
The Jewish News/Federation relationship stemmed from
Federation leaders’ desire to ensure that Detroit Jews
received accurate information not only about Federation, but
also matters relevant to Jews generally. Federations across
the country disseminated relevant information to their local
Jewish population as part of their charge. Leaders felt that
informing their local population about Federation activities
was critical to their fundraising efforts.
Some Federations relied on their local Jewish newspa-
pers to print articles and other information about the local
Federation activities and agendas, but, in other communities,
local Federations would publish their own newsletters, some-

continued on page 42

FACING PAGE: Philip Slomovitz
was called the dean of Jewish-
American journalists. For almost
50 years, he used the paper as
a vehicle to champion Jewish
causes as well as promote amity
among diverse peoples.
Slomovitz was the author
of two books, Without Malice
and Purely Commentary:
Philip Slomovitz’s 60 Years as
a Newspaperman. Although
legally blind for most of his
life, Slomovitz typed his own
material until 1991. He relied
on his memory and his nine file
cabinets of clippings, articles,
personal correspondence and
background information to tie
current events to previous epi-
sodes in Jewish history.
In 1992, he donated the
contents of these file cabinets
to the newly created Jewish
Community Archives housed at
the Reuther Library at Wayne
State University. The Philip
Slomovitz papers were arranged
and described by the Jewish
Historical Society of Michigan
under the supervision of Judith
Levin Cantor.

Source: Reuther Library

BELOW: Seated: Philip
Slomovitz; Standing: Rabbi
Abraham Herschman, Rabbi
Israel Goldman, Carmi Slomovitz,
Mayor Albert Cobo, Judge
Charles Simons and Malcolm
Bingay.

COURTESY LEONARD N. SIMONS JEWISH COMMUNITY ARCHIVES.

T

he Pearl Harbor attack and America’s entry into World
War II made 1942 a transitional year for Americans.
For Philip Slomovitz, 1942 was also a transitional year
on a personal level.
Slomovitz, born in 1896 in the Russian province of Minsk,
immigrated to New Jersey with his family in 1910. He found a
love of journalism while attending the University of Michigan
and started his career as a reporter for the Detroit News.
Then he was hired by the Detroit Jewish Chronicle, where he
spent most of the next two decades establishing a national
reputation as an editor and becoming a Detroit Jewish com-
munal leader.
He founded the Detroit branch of the Jewish National
Fund, co-founded United Hebrew Schools of Detroit, was
among the founding families of JARC, and held offices in the
local and national chapters of many communal organiza-
tions, such as the Zionist Organization of America and the
American Jewish Congress. He created the American Jewish
Press Association in 1942 and, later, the World Federation of
Jewish Journalists. He also served as a vice president of the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A born leader and organizer, he would type his own mate-
rial until he was 92 although he was legally blind for most of
his life.
By 1942, however, tensions had risen between Slomovitz
and Chronicle management, and he left the paper in
February 1942. There are a number of versions as to why he
left and whether his leaving was voluntary, but the split was
an opportunity for Slomovitz to start his own newspaper
with the financial assistance of some of Detroit’s most active
Jewish leaders.
Slomovitz began publishing the Detroit Jewish News in
March 1942. He stressed that the newspaper was the only
“community-sponsored paper in the U.S.” Indeed, the inves-
tors in the paper, most of whom were leaders in the Jewish
Welfare Federation of Detroit, served as the board of direc-
tors. Slomovitz also created a community advisory board
drawn from leadership of most aspects of Jewish life in
Detroit, as well as from other Michigan cities.
When Slomovitz started the Jewish News in 1942, the
Chronicle had been the established English-Jewish newspa-
per in Detroit for more than a quarter of a century, yet the
investors risked not only money but also their community
relationships by endorsing a competing newspaper. There
were many reasons, though, why the investors and other
community leaders supported Slomovitz’s new venture.
Communal leadership wanted a quality newspaper, one
more reflective of and advocating for the mainstream overall
community.
Endorsements in the first issue of the Jewish News strongly
imply that many were unhappy with the quality and sub-
stance of the Chronicle. For example, Fred Butzel, one of the
most important leaders in the Detroit Jewish community
(and an investor in the Jewish News), endorsed the paper,
stating that “A well published Jewish paper in Detroit is long
overdue.” The endorsements and other correspondence at
the time suggest that leadership also wanted more main-
stream editorial content than what the Chronicle offered.
Slomovitz himself, however, was probably the main attrac-
tion for the investors. By 1942, Slomovitz had an established
reputation in the American Jewish community as an activist
and as a newspaper editor. He was called one of the leading
editors of the English-Jewish press. He was a leading figure

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